Then his eyes widened, and he broke into a curious smile. “You got your field study invitation, didn’t you?”
“How do you do that?” I asked, flummoxed. He could have so many secrets, but I couldn’t even keep one.
“Do what?” His tone was innocent, but there was a devilish grin on his face. “So what is it? Which affinity group did you end up getting an assignment with?”
I squirmed on the bench, swiveling slightly to break our eye contact.
Callan positioned himself right back in my sightline, dark eyelashes framing steadily focused eyes. “Why so mysterious today, local?”
“I can’t tell anyone about it until I talk to Professor East,” I said finally. I cast an eye toward Hollis, who was pretending not to listen again.
Callan’s eyes were still trained on me, and we sat locked in astaring contest for two heartbeats. Finally, he pulled back ever so slightly and said, “Interesting.”
And, to my amazement, he rose. He wasn’t going to try to get any more information out of me?
“That’s it? You’re not going to ask again?”
“No, because you would have told me. And I get the feeling you’re not supposed to.”
I pursed my lips. The man knew how I would respond to him better than I did. I shook my head, mildly vexed that he was right.
If he had asked me again, Iwouldhave told him. I didn’t have that reaction to anyone else. For a year now, I had been able to keep being a magical botanist from my aunt and from Maci, and I regularly held off on telling things to Yasmin until I got the green light.
But with Callan, I wanted to share everything. I wanted his opinion. His approval. His support. I wanted the feeling I got when his attention was focused solely on me.
“When will you be back?” I asked, trying to tuck those thoughts away. They didn’t lead anywhere good when we apparently had Callan’s mom hanging over our heads.
Callan slipped his hiking backpack over his shoulders. “Two days, if everything goes well.”
“Stay safe out there.” I threw the words in Hollis’s direction, too, and he nodded.
“I’ll try to keep him out of trouble,” Hollis said, voice full of humor.
“More like the other way around,” Callan murmured. Then he eyed my notebook, where the envelope was stashed. “Good luck.” He flashed me a grin that nearly knocked me off the bench, then he left the gazebo and began to stride across the field with Hollis, the grasses swaying out of the way as he walked.
There was no hope of studying or even of finishing my sketch after that interaction, and I headed to Professor East’s office to meet him as soon as he arrived on campus. I was waiting outside his door when he crested the stairs.
“Hello, Ms. Whelan.”
“Hi, professor. Do you have a few minutes?”
“Sure, sure.” Professor East ushered me inside the spacious office, and we took our usual places. “What’s on your mind?”
“I received my field studies invitation last night.”
He nodded almost imperceptibly, and I removed the envelope from my bag. “The instructions say to talk to you.”
Professor East took the offered note and read it over, expression unreadable. “I see. Nice work in finding this. I don’t imagine its delivery was conventional.”
I snorted, remembering the corpse plant and the way it had unfurled itself dramatically in the middle of the night. “Not exactly, no.”
“So I take it you accept the invitation?”
“I’d like to, yes.”
“Very well. This position is… unique. The botanist who extended the invitation has never taken a field studies student before.”
I sat up straighter, waiting.
